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Elbridge Colby assumes the Pentagon’s No. 3 post after the controversial Senate fight ends with a vote to confirm him in the role.
The Senate voted between 51 and 45 to confirm the national security strategist as Pentagon’s policy director, with three Democrats joining most Republicans in his favour. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY.) was the only Republican vote.
Colby has overcome skepticism from the GOP Hawks, such as Sen. Tom Cotton, who was worried about previous statements about Iran, even if he lost his former Senate majority leader.
“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests the complexity of the challenges facing America, the key values of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in the hard forces to maintain America’s superiority,” McConnell said in a statement after the vote.
“The prioritization that Colby argues is fresh, new and urgently needed is in fact a return to the Obama-era concept of a la carte geography strategy. To abandon Ukraine and Europe and to downplay the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical kiss move. They exploit it.”
Colby, co-founder of the Marathon Initiative and former Deputy Director for Strategy and Force Development under the Trump administration, is best known for his role in writing the 2018 National Defense Strategy.
Vance visits Capitol Hill and urges the senator to check out Elbridge Colby for the Pentagon number. 3 posts
Elbridge Colby assumes the Pentagon’s No. 3 post after the controversial Senate fight ends with a vote to confirm him in the role. (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East/AFP via Getty Images)
He has long argued that the US military needs to illuminate Middle East resources in the light of the Indo-Pacific region. Colby had solid support from Trump’s inner circle, but that raised the heat of Senate Republicans to delay his confirmation.
Colby had softened some of his previous statements, including those that suggested that living with nuclear Iran is safer than bombing Iran’s nuclear sites.
At the confirmation hearing, Colby said he believes Iran is an “existential” threat to the United States.
“Yes, nuclear-armed Iran, especially the senators, I know that, given that they’ve been working on ICBM range capabilities and other capabilities that pose existential danger to the United States,” Colby said.
Magazine’s loyalists aimed at leading post-Trump senators, saying, “Why the opposition?”
Colby had solid support from Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President J.D. Vance. (Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He has promised to provide the president with a “reliable and good military option” if diplomacy with Iran fails.
“What’s worse than the outlook for Iran armed with nuclear weapons? [the] Colby said in 2012.
“A lot of the things I was against at the time, these conversations 15 years ago, many of the enemies I felt, had casual attitudes towards military employment, and even lightly,” Colby explained at the hearing. “That’s a lot of what I was against. Was my language always right? Was my exact framing always right? No.”
Senator Tom Cotton pushed Colby over past comments on Iran. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
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“Your view of Taiwan’s importance to the US seems to have become quite soft,” R-Miss. Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker told Colby at some point during the hearing.
“What I’ve been trying to fire traffic light flares is that it’s important for us to focus and enable our own powers to do more for Taiwanese, Taiwanese people and Japanese people,” Colby said.
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